'The Shining' Prequel Gets a Director

Mark Romanek is in negotiations to helm Warner Bros.’ Overlook Hotel, a prequel to the Stanley Kubrick classic The Shining.

Former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara recently turned in his draft for the original story, with Mythology’s Brad Fischer, James Vanderbilt and Laeta Kalogridis producing.

Based on Stephen King’s original prologue to The Shining, which was cut from the book prior to publication in 1977, the film will tell the origin story of the Overlook Hotel through the eyes of its first owner, Bob T. Watson. A robber baron at the turn of the 20th century, Watson scaled the remote peaks of the Colorado Rockies to build the grandest resort in America, and a place he and his family would also call home

Starring Jack Nicholson, the original Shining revolved around a writer who takes his family to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil presence influences him to commit violent acts, while his psychic son sees horrific visions of the past and future.

Though ABC had King’s blessing to make a 1997 mini-series remake starring Steven Webber, studios have been cautious about doing justice to a film that has come to be seen as one of the top horror films of all time.

In 2013, King published a Shining sequel Dr. Sleep, which Warners is also trying to get off the ground.

Romanek is also attached to direct Boston Strangler for the studio starring Casey Affleck and last directed the Fox Searchlight pic Never Let Me Go.